1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of electronic gaming terminals available in casinos and other legal places.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic gaming machines available in casinos and other legal places are games of chance whereby the player repetitively tries his luck to win prizes. The player purchases an amount of credit to play by transferring monetary value into the gaming machine or into the networked gaming system using coins, banknotes, vouchers or any other form of financial instrument. In exchange for his money, the player is given an electronic credit on a local gaming machine or alternatively on a networked gaming system by way of a player account managed on a server. Each time the player plays a game, his credit balance is debited of the amount he wishes to wager. Depending on the local game regulation, the wager amount is either hardwired into the gaming machine or selectable by the user prior to playing a game. The play-and-debit scenario is typically repeated monotonously until the player""s credit is used up or until a prize is won. The prize value is derived from numbers drawn randomly, an outcome prize matrix and the wager amount.
It is the object of this invention to offer the players a more interesting play pace whereby the rhythm of the game play may be varied and the prize outcome adjusted accordingly. The player may try his luck against a frantic rhythm with minimum return for each game or at a slow-pace rhythm with higher return on each game. Standby time may be used to entertain the player.
A player may purchase an amount of playing time and then play as quickly as he desires on gaming terminals during that period. When the player actuates the cash-out, the down counting time clock is frozen. The player may then choose to continue playing on another machine or return to the same machine at any other time. The game outcome is automatically adjusted in accordance with the speed at which the game is played.
It is a further object of this invention to offer the players a synchronized game playing rhythm whereby the instant at which the game is activated is triggered by some form of psychedelic or ambiance input such as music tempo, microphone input tempo and video tempo. The games may be automatically triggered following a manual arming activated by the player. This feature will be appreciated by players who like to try their luck while being immersed in a particular ambiance or subsequent to the occurrence of a given event such as when a bird dropping has fallen on them, when a car accident occurs in front of them, when being in a special place or when a blond girl smiles at them, for example.
Standby time may be used to entertain the player, and the entertainment may drive the automatic triggering of games.
It is a further object of this invention to support all forms of cashless instruments such as:
a player account whereby the time-to-play balance and the total of the winnings are associated to a patron ID;
an anonymous game session account whereby the time-to-play balance and the total of the winnings are associated to a game session ID;
a voucher verification account whereby the time-to-play balance, the total of the winnings and the hash or encrypted signature generated when the voucher is created are printed or encoded on the voucher;
a smartcard reconciliation account whereby the, time-to-play balance and the total of the winnings are mirrored copies of the time-to-play balance and the total of the winnings managed in the secure electronic module of the smartcard.